


The Nights Are Lonely

by mythicdork



Series: Superhero Love isn't Perfect? More Likely Than You Think. [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Imperfect Relationship, M/M, Marvel x DC, Mistakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 19:12:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14291538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythicdork/pseuds/mythicdork
Summary: Bruce Wayne is a man who thinks he can control it all; however, after a fight with the man that wormed into his heart, he is having second guesses on that fact.





	The Nights Are Lonely

Bruce took a kind of sick pride in his ability to hold strong through anything. Few things had ever made him weak enough to show through it all. He could count on a single hand the amount of times he broke down and fell into tears that actually were from sadness rather than pain. He took pleasure in that simple fact.

But Tony did the same thing to Bruce that he did to everything else. He pried open his shell and dug around on the inside, ripping and changing, breaking and rebuilding. Even in the haze that had fallen over him, Bruce couldn’t think Tony did it on purpose.

It was just how Tony was.

Tony had a way of changing people, and Bruce stubbornly saw himself as impervious to such a feeling. He was strong, unbending. He cared but he didn’t stumble. And then it all fell through.

Bruce blamed a lack of sleep, of the work they were doing. But maybe that was foolishness that came with the desperate need left within him to not take everything said at face value. Bruce saw long ago how different he was from Tony even in the face of so many similarities. Tony felt it all, he didn’t hold back, he allowed the emotion to flow through him and _out_. Bruce worked the opposing way, every emotion was a secondary issue, one that Bruce saw as a disruption to plans.

He didn’t know why he thought that process would be so okay with Tony. He didn’t know why he thought omission wouldn’t bother the man that figured out his secret identity on a whim. Perhaps Bruce was more of an optimist than he thought.

He knew one day Tony would be pushed too far, he knew that the distance and worry would eventually breed more than could be slipped away. He wasn’t foolish enough to think so lowly of Tony that he wouldn’t one day see everything that came with Bruce Wayne.

Too much happened at once, and one fight became another became another. Bruce or Tony giving the first passive jab, building until they buckled.

Bruce needed to be more honest. Bruce needed to be less overbearing. Bruce wasn’t Tony’s guardian, he was his boyfriend, _if that_. Bruce needed to stop running from his problems. Why does Fly Boy always seem to be talking down at Tony, he isn’t _stupid_.

No matter the fight, when the climax came, Bruce would leave. He couldn’t handle the thought of letting go the feelings under his skin. Feelings that swelled to a boil in his gut and twisted and turned like a beast in his throat through to his arms. He once made the mistake to push back, and that was the last fight. Bruce blamed the sleep, blamed the back ground, blamed the build up. One time he blamed Tony for asking him to let it out and be _real_ , but that felt worse than most things he had dealt with.

He let too much go. He brought up Tony’s recklessness, Tony’s lack of comprehension that what Bruce is _feeling_ can not be handled like a common passing thought, that leaving a built situation to clear his head wasn’t _running_. And then he pushed and pushed. He brought up Steve.

It was an unstated rule that Steve was off limits. But Bruce snapped. Steve was brought into it, Tony’s trust issues was brought into it. With that push, Tony lost it. Bruce’s parents were brought up, Bruce’s sons were brought up, Bruce’s shortcomings.

It was all so much.

Tony left. The suit formed around him, and the last thing Bruce saw was the cold stagnant look of the iron man suit.

Bruce was silent after it happened. He worked hard. He ignored comments and concerns. He locked himself away.

And it was in those moments that the tears fell. The tears that Bruce kept away for so long, would fall freely. He blamed himself. He blamed his anger. Blamed his lack of control. His fist went through various walls, his sobs made his knees give.

That’s how Bruce would end up on his knees, hunched over, shaking. He couldn’t focus. He couldn’t _breathe_. All he could see was Tony’s face of betrayal. He could hear the barbs thrown his direction. He could feel his heart thudding and the tears would come.

But it was the lonely sleepless nights where the streets were as quiet as the room Bruce Wayne filled, that the tears came the easiest. He could roll to his side, curved toward the side of the bed he never went to, staring at the wall, hand out onto cold sheets. He can’t hide from his shortcomings.

He can’t hide from _Him_. Even when he was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a one-shot, but I might be posting several loosely related and likely out of order other tid-bits eventually. Also Marvel x DC ships are my life, so expect random other ships.


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